Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: 1983

So far in this competition we’ve seen both companies pushing the limits of 80s technology.  Most notably they’ve been able to flood the screens with enemies or make a 3D effect out of 2D graphics, both things that on their own would still be impressive into the 90s.  We’ll find out how much more these companies are capable of as we go over the games of 1983.

Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: 1982

Now we’re at 1982.  Both companies have brought out some impressive arcade tech, but Midway was still only starting while Namco made Pac-Man.  Here in 1982 is where Midway really gets to stretch their wings.  They’ll need to bring their best because 2 of Namco’s more famous games came out this year.

Before I get to it, some people might notice a particular game that's missing.

Yeah, Ms. Pac-Man has a hell of a history that brings it into question as to whether it should count as a Midway game or a Namco game.  Technically Midway published it, but it was developed by a separate company and now Namco owns the rights to it.  I could count it as a Midway game because they're the ones who commissioned its creation, but that creation is a glorified ROM hack of the original Pac-Man, meaning the core of it is still made by Namco.  Since it's kind of both a Namco and Midway game, determining which company gets it for this competition would be like picking sides so I'm excluding it for the sake of fairness.

Namco vs. Midway: The King of Arcades 2: Intro & 1979-1981

The Capcom vs. SNK: The King of Arcade series I did was a lot of fun.  The advancement of technology, culture and game design through the games themselves was fascinating to see unfold and I even discovered a few hidden gems I didn’t know I liked, all while making an observation of what both companies were pulling off at the time.  I should hope that trip down the annuls of arcade history was also entertaining to read and maybe got people to try out some of the games for themselves.

It was so much fun, in fact, that I’m doing it again.  The only problem is there isn’t any arcade gaming rivalry quite like that of Capcom and SNK.  I mean they made multiple games in which they fight each other, for pete’s sake.  Who else then would make for an entertaining head-to-head competition that only exists in my mind?

The real question is what game companies have an extensive arcade catalogue that can come close to that of Capcom and SNK that’s also viable for me to play.  Some people see a rivalry between Sega and Namco, but that was mostly during the 3D era and Namco’s biggest games date back to the 80s, something Sega doesn’t have the prolific catalogue for.  There’s also arguably Taito and Midway, but it has the opposite problem, where Taito stopped making arcade games in the 90s as Midway continued to do so until 2001.

 

I found the best idea was to make it between the two default winners of those aforementioned rivalries: Namco and Midway.  One company Japanese, the other American, both with a big back catalogue of smash hit arcade games, from the most primitive of the 80s to the more advanced polygonal ones of the 90s.  Sure, they don’t have a series of crossover games like our previous contestants; in fact, Midway wasn’t exactly a fierce rival to Namco, considering Midway published some of their games for American distribution, but that didn’t last forever.

The rules are the same as before.  While not as much as with Capcom and SNK, I have a big catalogue of arcade game collections for both companies as well as a series of old-school arcades at my disposal with which to play as many of each company’s games as I can, much like last time.  As I do I’ll once again be writing my thoughts and judgements, then deciding on a victor on a year-by-year basis.  Games from Namco will be marked as “NAM” and games from Midway will be marked as “MID”.